Driftwood
by PrescientRain
Summary: Haru and you have always had a tight, flawless relationship, sticking close as you help each other pursue your dreams of swimming pro. But when an abrupt, inescapable rift is shoved between you, you must learn to say goodbye. You're two pieces of driftwood in a vast ocean, and he's slowly getting farther away. The worst part- there's no telling if he'll sink.
1. Chapter 1

**HaruXReader**

**Warning: Lots of fluff topped with an overdose of angst! No graphic violence or sexual content; rated K+ for depressing content.**

**Spoiler warning!: This Oneshot involves 2 main character deaths.**

"Haru-chan, please stay."

Snuggled closely within his strong arms, you rest your chin on his firm shoulder as he cradles you in a gentle embrace. Heat from the sun-soaked grains of sandy shore still lingers warmly under your bare legs, balanced in harmonious perfection by the cool ocean water that washes rhythmically up and down with each swelling wave crest. Unable to go against the tide, the rippling salt always returns, following nature's guiding hand now and ever since the beginning of time itself. You bite your lip pensively, wondering if he'll come back as it does.

"Believe me, _, I wish I could."

His whispering voice is strikingly calm, trickling like a soothing waterfall of solace into your ears; as smooth as white-washed glass tossed to perfection by the never ending seafoam.

You gently grasp his soft hand in your own, wayward grains shared unwanted between your palms like growing rifts in spider-cracked ice. In an attempt to be rid of them you rub his hand affectionately, but the water acts as glue-like residue, the ambition of the greedy leeches refusing to unlatch from him.

You sigh forlornly, strands of your (h/c) hair tossing into your misty eyes.

"How long will you be...gone?"

You ask tentatively, as if treading in murky water skewed by a multitude of roused debris. This pool that used to be crystal clear, thriving with life's simple pleasures, is now shrouded in a dark nest of insecurity, harboring foul, deformed creatures that nibble mockingly at your exposed feet. You can only imagine how he must feel. While you may wade out of the pool if you choose, he can't.

As you suspect, no response comes.

Instead he stares blankly at the familiar scene before him, letting your words slip unanswered into the current as he wishes only to revel in the peaceful moment at hand. To draw it out, stretch the rubber band as far as he can before it finally snaps aggressively back into place.

For him, the future is a terrifyingly dark abyss- a pitch-blackened trench woven deeply into the fragile fabrics of his serene world. It's a gap of uncertainty that he isn't quite ready to bridge- especially not alone like this- without you.

But like so many others- Makoto included-he doesn't have a choice.

"They can't just do this to you. It isn't fair."

You try to keep your voice from cracking, but it cannot obey such a harsh demand. It slips awkwardly away on the last soft-spoken word.

His hand tenderly strokes your hair, gliding easily through the messy waves like a swimmer carving through water. As you sit beside each other, you can feel his heart drumming steadily against your back, wanting to stay here with you instead of leaving to some far off, unfamiliar place.

"There's nothing I can do, _..."

The two of you sigh in unison, a chorus of breathy, windswept sorrows that make you wince. You've never felt so utterly hopeless; nothing can stop him now-not even himself.

But despite your wishes, time has its own motives, paying no regard to the meaningless pieces of driftwood that float in the vast ocean of life. The seconds flit quickly by, broken butterflies on their final flight as they pass seamlessly into minutes. Neither of you breathe a word, simply relishing in each other's company for as long as you can. And it won't be much longer now before he has to depart from you.

You watch as the sun fades, it's faceted, child-like rays bouncing like sleek dancing partners off of the expanse of effervescent sea. They twirl together for a million lifetimes, dancing to inaudible music and leaving pinks and oranges in their gaiety wakes. You can't help but whimper. It's possible that you and Haru will never get the chance to dance together again. Not to mention Makoto, and the other boys who suffer the same fate. The young boys who soon will be ripped from their homes for who knows how long. What about those of them who've never kissed a girl? Or gone off to college, or have never had the chance to accomplish much of anything? What about the dreamers, or the ones who wish on stars? The ones who've been working for as long as they can remember to achieve them?

Those like Haru, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin.

No. They could never do anything to deserve this.

Contradictorily, the approaching dusk is breathtaking, spinning threads of magic and sweeping you into a surreal world where you and Haru both are untouched by life's many trials. If only it could last, even if it would be nothing more than an eternal dream. At least then you would know how it would end- with a guaranteed smile. But there are no such luxuries in the real world. Happy endings were coined in fairytales- not in reality.

You find your eyes sleepily wavering shut, the tranquility of the beach slowly melting your ability to keep consciousness. The gulls croon as they hop on the sand around you, settling closer to shore to endure the approaching night.

Far off somewhere beyond where you can see clearly, a lighthouse flickers; the unmistakable sound of a foghorn burrows through the clouds to shake you to alertness.

The time the two of you have spent together has finally breached the hour mark.

The very last hour...

He freezes for a moment. But he knows he has to go. Forcing himself to move, he hesitantly shifts next to you, slowly unentangling his arm from your slim waist. Without a word, he steadily eases himself to his feet. The reluctance in his movements is subtle, but having known him for so long, you notice it immediately. The moment has come- the impending dread hitting you like several bullets in the heart. A gaping swell of empty nausea filters ruthlessly into your stomach as he tucks his hands into his navy blue sweatshirt pockets. His eyes are closed, facing the water.

"So long," he whispers to the sparkles. His best friend aside from you and Makoto, the one thing that always remained constant when everything else was crashing and churning into bits. Water- the ocean, the pool- the feeling of weightlessness as his head sank under the milky surface. The comforting darkness it brought- not a darkness filled with uncertainty, but of familiarity. One he had grown to love.

It is the one place where he always can find peace and solace-among the darkness.

At least... it was.

After several moments, he finally turns, careful that he doesn't look at you again. He knows he won't be able to suppress his emotion if he does.

"Wait!," your hand mourns and fingertips grope the air ahead.

He immediately stops in his trek back to the beachside road, but can't bring himself to look at you.

"_, please don't make this harder than it already is."

You sigh heavily, driving your hand into the deep pocket of your camouflage shorts. Your fingertips run against something smooth and small, twist in circles and wrap around a metal chain. You gnaw at your lip.

"I- I just have to give you something. Please let me."

You smile weakly when he turns, his feet padding softly on the sand. His eyes stray aimlessly, but never wander high enough to breach the gap spanning between the two pairs of eyes.

"It's...I...," the words are difficult to form and catch in your throat. You sigh and clear it, resting your eyes for a moment before letting them flick calmly open again. Composure- you have to keep it. You know that failure to do so may force him to lose his- and that's something you could never bear to see.

His lips offer no words.

The sky is a dim blue, clouded with spots of storming gray tempest.

The silence hangs in the air like shards of broken stained glass strung on thin wires.

It pierces. It provokes. It slinks through the peaceful water like an eyesore- a piece of battered driftwood.

You have to end it.

"I bought this for you," you say. "Actually, that's a lie...I sort of already had it. But I say I bought it because well, it wasn't an easy choice to give it up. It's...very important to me. But I think you should have it."

You lift your closed fist from your pocket and let it settle in front of you, close to Haru. Slowly, you let the fingers unfurl and reveal the priceless treasure inside.

His eyes widen, and a gasp flees as his lips part slightly. He lifts his eyes to you- a beautiful, crystalline blue that the light wastes no time in playing with.

"_, your locket? I can't-"

You slip a finger onto his mouth and smile.

"No, you have to take it. I need to give this to you. So you know...I'm always with you."

Before he can refuse, you steal his hand and press the chain into his palm. His fingers close around it, and the warmth from your hand filters into his cool skin. A small pang of loss pricks your stomach, but a feeling of contentedness replaces it immediately. You've had it for years, but now it's with someone you trust. Someone that you love.

"...Thank you. I promise, I'll take good care of it."

"I know you will."

The two of you stand in silence for a moment, frozen in any combination of memory or time or reluctance. Somewhere beyond the slab of street behind you, an engine purrs louder as it draws nearer.

You both know what it is, and who it's coming to take away.

Yet neither of you can move. All you can do is search for and treasure what you find in the eyes of the other.

Before you know it, the engine becomes a full roar and abruptly halts behind Haru, where the shore of sand dunes embraces the sheet of concrete. You swallow hard and painfully, as if trying to force a rock down your throat but failing as it cuts the tissue. You can see it- the truck filled with the eleven other young men assigned to travel with him. Their shadows are illuminated by dying sunlight and you can make out the shapes of their faces through the heavy canvas stretched across the top. One is particularly disheartening, a young man with elbows burrowing into his knees and cradling his head while a foreign arm stretches and gives him a fretful tap on the back. You can't peel your eyes away as the larger shadow unsticks itself from the picture and makes its way to the front of the group, slow like marching by a funereal procession, and no heads turn. You look away when his arms embrace the doorway and launch him soundlessly to the dusted sand.

For a moment, he doesn't speak. It's not easy to watch a parting- it's even harder to be in one.

"...Haru, it's time to go."

Haru recognizes the voice and his bottom lip shakes. "Don't lose it, Haru," you can imagine the words drifting in his mouth, but they don't release. He's trying to coach himself to strength- trying not to shatter and become a billion more particles of ashen sand.

He inhales deeply and turns to meet the voice.

"I know. I'm ready, Makoto."

A lie. A plain, dead, cold lie. He couldn't be farther from it.

But Makoto doesn't correct him. He only smiles and stretches out a hand.

Haru stares at it for a moment- like he doesn't want to grasp it, or like doing so is a matter of life and death.

In a way, it is.

You open your mouth to offer a final, solemn goodbye, but the words don't make it past the barriers of your lips.

Instead of an outflow of words, and influx of surprise rushes through you as you are swept into a kiss.

Haru's arms don't wrap around you, even though you can sense they would like nothing more. Your eyes are wide and your breath is pilfered from your lungs.

The kiss is brief, but feels as if it's lost in forever. You take in every detail of him; his strong jawline and prominent cheekbones, the black wave of hair crashing onto his forehead, the chlorinated eyes that speak a thousand words without uttering one.

Haru slides quickly away and doesn't make an effort to hide his face. A grim smile is plastered in messy paint there, indecisive, vindictive, resentful, and hopeful all at once. You cast a smile of your own back.

Makoto watches, care in his eyes, as Haru effortlessly climbs into the large truck, his arms rippling with youthful energy and strength. You hope beyond what should be possible that they stay that way.

"Well, we'll be seeing you, _." Makoto's feathery brown hair dances with the wind, and his new uniform is a stark smudge against the backdrop of beauty. With slight reluctance and muttering of breath, he continues, "...You know, if...we..."

A drafty pause hangs like a thick residue in the air around him, waiting for the unspoken words to be pulled from his mouth. You don't blame Makoto for having trouble speaking them. "...make it out alive." You finish the morbid thought, choosing to keep it to yourself.

His feet quickly gain his eyes' attention. Stepping forward, you wrap your arms around him and whisper in his ear. He needs a word of encouragement more than anything right now, and if you're the only one who can offer it, then you're glad to.

"It'll be okay. I have faith in all of you. Just promise me you'll do your best to look out for each other."

You feel a subtle nod riddled with uncertainty before the embrace is divided by gusts of change. Waving, Makoto's feet drum onto the steps leading up to the truck and silence when he takes his seat. You imagine who the boy next to him must be, the one slumped from before. Nagisa.

As the truck slowly growls and pops back to life, Haru peeks out from the side of the thick canvas. His eyes are sad and warrant one last smile of desperate affection.

You wave to him, pressing your hand to your lips and blowing him a gentle kiss. He pretends to capture it in his palm, then opens it slightly to reveal the locket.

"Goodbye, Haru," you whisper as you wave them away. You try to expel the trepidation bubbling in your stomach as the truck pulls away in a puff of black exhaust.

And then, all is quiet again.

Dead silent.

You picture all of them sitting on that truck together, sharing grim faces and passing around their heavy hearts like plausible piles of play dough.

All but Rei had made it in. He was lucky enough to have broken his leg while, as he put it, "beautifully launching" off of a crooked dock into the ocean.

Four of the Iwatobi Swim Club's members had been drafted for the army-to go to war. Only one remains. And that means...

"No more swim club," you whisper.

After one last fleeting glance at the sky, you walk back up the path to your shoreside home, raindrop tears gnashing at your ankles as they relentlessly chase behind. Despair shuts the door behind you.


	2. Chapter 2

~1 year later~

Thick, black clouds. The wind plays with them, churning them and whistling through the holes that allow futile patches of sunlight to burst through only to be desolated by darkness in mere moments. The hands of the frothing clouds are wrathful and loathsome, lugging across the sky and staring mockingly down at the procession.

You stand hand in hand with Nagisa, Rei, and Rin on a swatch of dry green grass, and no one breathes a word. Thoughts race a million miles a minute, flinging variant emotions about your heads like baseballs that slam and dent fences, break windows. All eyes are fixed on the huge mass of stone ahead- a statue with a glistening golden plaque inscribed beneath.

You furiously blink your eyes to keep the rain from seeping in, but it makes its way through the folded cracks of skin regardless. Not like it matters. It's only a catalyst for the repertoire of tears culminating behind the slabs of stone, streaming in rivers of red and blue.

The four of you are the only ones who came today. The torrential downpour pounding the streets and sloshing against windows provided an excuse for most people to stay home. Disgust for their disrespect foams in your mouth, and your teeth clench and grind with your fists. Still, sorrow makes its way to the front of the disparate array of emotions churning in your mind. Like a train with the light switched on as you fumble your way across the strips of track, you've been caught in the headlight and can't jump away.

You watch soundlessly as Nagisa perturbs what was once utter silence, taking a few steps forward until he is face to face with one of two the stone figures permanently perched atop the slab. His fingers run along the arm of one of them, eventually forcing him to drop to the ground with a sickening thud of knees on pavement. Hands shaking against the unearthly coolness of the metal, he tearfully begs the uneven breaths to halt. He understands that he owes them this much, to read the inscription aloud, to let the words sink into the air and carry their story on angel's wings farther than he can fathom. He owes them far more than this, but he can't give anything better.

With an earthquake trembling in his voice, he begins, nearly inaudibly.

"This memorial is dedicated to Captain Haruka Nanase and First Lieutenant Makoto Tachibana, who selflessly offered their lives to protect the lives of those in the battle."

A hefty swallow of raw emotion. He grapples inside himself to continue.

"They were sent to the East Coast of China to fight off an impending raid that was to be sent into Japan days later. It quickly became apparent that the five regiments were strongly outnumbered, and being only a few hundred feet away from the beach with nowhere to run, it quickly became a war zone where death was imminent. With only their machine guns to protect them, Haruka and Makoto stepped out from the little cover they had and into the open with no regard to their own safety. Providing a diversion with Second Lieutenant Rin Matsouka resuming charge of the remaining regiments, they inspired courage into their troops and successfully evacuated 457 men, saving their lives. Soldiers present have reported it was like a miracle, that time stood still and that for almost an entire five minutes the Chinese were too stunned to even fire a bullet. On June 18, 2013 however, they were shot down when they were overrun by Chinese forces. Their heroic sacrifice will never be forgotten by the communities of Iwatobi, and their selflessness will serve as an inspiration for generations to come."

When the last of the words slip past his lips, he sinks to the ground and leans against the stone like a broken branch. His tears decorate the metal, fastening delicate gems to it and singing a bittersweet melody when the gravitational wind carries them away.

"I'm sorry, Haru, Makoto. I'm sorry I wasn't there by your side..."

A desperate plea of forgiveness; you know Nagisa was among those they saved the day destiny tethered them to fate. The grip on your right hand loosens as Rin sluggishly makes his way across the grass and onto the pavement, kneeling beside Nagisa and throwing an arm around him in a brotherly gesture of comfort. The corner of your mouth quakes as if tickled by a feather.

A jagged, black one.

"I'm sorry too," Rin begins, deliberate and calm. "But...we should be thanking them." He lets the peeking sun patches dip a smile onto his face. "If I know Haruka and Makoto, they'd want us to be grateful- not sorrowful."

His words just about sum it all up.

A few more tears shed, and slowly, Nagisa finds the strength to stand again. He faces the cold stone statues frozen in time, the two young men standing back to back with guns held aloft. He touches the memory with his fingertips once more, finally allowing his lips to become a mirror image of Rin's. A smile.

"Thank you," he confidently breathes.

You struggle to contain the barrage of sobs growing in your chest; you can taste the smell of tears. The bitter pain of loss is mounting; regret; too much to bear.

"I-I have to go."

You swivel and pivot on your feet, clutching your dark raincoat around your shoulders. The drips don't stop falling and dissipate like snakes, hissing on the slither down smooth.

"_!" Nagisa stretches and catches the edge of your raincoat while Rin simultaneously swings you back around with a strong hand. Firm, but not harmful.

"You can't just walk off like that," Rei calmly says, his first utterance of the evening. His glasses are slightly crooked, a flaw scorched across the fabric that made up his otherwise beautiful world.

You sigh raggedly, snatching your coat out of Nagisa's hands with a slip of flesh on drenched material. As he examines his pulsating wrists for brush burns, you try to ignore the look of hurt on his face. His blonde hair looks almost ashen gray in the light, the color of tombstones, his blue eyes sparkling incomprehensibly. Softness gradually kills your anger as the boys gather in front of you.

"Look, it's not any of you. I just need to be alone." Your heels flick on raised patches of muddied soil and you trip on gobs of haphazardly strewn grass as you slowly back away.

"I'm sorry."

"Wait, _!"

Nagisa yells in vain to stop your pounding feet, but you don't look back.

The tears would've obscured your vision to nothing more than a bland haze anyway.

~At the Beachside, one hour later~

You crunch your fists into tight, sharp balls, fingernails scraping the skin of your palms. How could you have been so callous and selfish, leaving your friends like that?

You kick at the sand as if it's the one responsible for all of this, watching the dust flick, twirl, and dive into the sheet of rippling ocean water with a few hundred prickly ridges. It's so clear today that you can see the seaweed dancing beneath the miles of stained glass window, watch the fish skim by in their schools.

This is a day Haru would've loved, despite the ominous gray clouds pushing their way through the expanse of blue skies. He probably would've invited you in without so much as a giggle. You stare across the horizon and wistfully grasp at your imagination, watching the colors twist him into a fuzzy mirage.

"I'm getting in the water." His shirt flies off and his pants sink to his ankles, revealing a stark black pair of swimming trunks with traces of purple.

He waits a moment.

"Is that an invitation?", you grin.

No response, but a glance over the shoulder with a faint smile.

"Alright," you laugh, dipping your toes into the water. "I suppose I'll get in."

You blink the fallacious visions away, and all there is is you and the beach again.

It's so vacant...

You squint your eyes against the bleaching sun. It's managed to break through a rift in the clouds and lends them an almost eerie glow through tiny pores, like lamplights on a street full of speckled fireflies at dusk.

That's when you see it- a spot on the water. Dark, moving slowly and whisking in time with the foaming waves. A glint atop it, shimmering like a lost treasure.

Your lip pleads with you to stop chewing it as you stare harder, trying to sift through the light. It's impossible to tell from here.

Well, everyone always said you were the perfect match for Haru.

You fling off your sandals and toss your raincoat behind you, like you've seen him do hundreds of times. You're dressed in t-shirt and jeans, but you could really care less- the rain from earlier got through to your bones anyway. Your feet sink into the warm sand, and you swallow all remaining doubts.

You wade carelessly into the waves and let the water take it's hands and drape itself onto your shoulders like a sparkling shawl. You haven't gone swimming in a year- one whole year. You forgot how much you love it- and how much you need it.

You dare to smile. The water splashes you playfully, turning up and in around your body and memorizing you with effortless support. You feel like you're flying with Haru again. You can almost see him next to you, hear him.

"Pretty good, _. Just stretch your arms out farther."

The object is close now- within reach. The water is shallow; your feet float until they land softly on the bottom, leaving you up to your chest in creamy cerulean sea.

"O-oh...my..." Your heart nearly stops. A solitary piece of driftwood with splinters piercing the water's heart, carved and ripped from somewhere far, far off. A realization slaps you violently in the face, and you gasp.

...You live on the East Coast of Japan.

"It...this can't be possible."

And you're right- there's no way something sent from the shore of China could've spiraled and made its way here. No way.

Your hands tentatively reach for the chain mutilated around the sharp stints of poking wood. Wincing as you struggle to disentangle it from the spires, your hands shake.

"Haru..." you swallow the name.

The cold metal soothes your aching fingers- miraculous balm. You inhale a deep breath and peel away the opening of the small locket, the rusted creaking sharp in your eyes as they widen.

Faces stare back at you. Six total.

Your hand flies to you mouth and tears leak from your eyes like they're a pair of broken faucets. It's your locket. The one you gave to Haru before he left.

He kept it safe.

"So it was me you thought of in your last moments," you mutter, letting the streams on your cheeks splash into the ocean. You stroke the side of the heart shape, replaying the day the picture inside was taken with the film strip locked into your mind.

"Alright, everybody smile!" Gou grins and prepares to light up the pool area with a sharp flash, her fiery ponytail bouncing in the breeze. Makoto and Nagisa laugh as Rei struggles to maintain his perfect posture, and Rin collectedly lingers like a shadow with a plump smirk on his lips. You stand next to Haru and watch his features, twisted into deep, pensive lines. You glance left and right, pondering whether you should do something.

"Okay, countdown! 3...2...1..."

Just as she finishes the word, you thrust your arms around Haru's neck and plant a kiss firmly on his cheek. He blushes fiercely, and a smile of surprise is captured in the picture.

You sigh contentedly, using two fingers to shut the memory back into its snug place. You wipe the tears from your eyes and look to the sky, whispering quietly to the magnificent display of colors. It's almost as if a prism is suddenly planted there, and all the hues of the rainbow chase away the dark, malignant clouds with a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, Haru."

You clutch the metal in your hand, closing your eyes and letting the washing coolness cleanse your hurt. To your side, the jagged piece of wood slowly drifts off, returning back to the endless horizon from whence it came.

Just one piece of driftwood in a vast ocean of many that managed to travel to places it never should've been; just one person in a sea of billions.

He'd find a way back to you, someway- somehow.

Someday.


	3. Sentiment

~One day~

Peppy, lemon colored hair bounces against the backdrop of city life, shooting across the sky like an animated star.

"Wait up, Nagisa!"

Rei grins, running hard against the pavement to catch up with his friend. He's grown a lot since the years he served in China- almost a full 5 inches. It is now a struggle to keep up with him, even for someone as athletic as Rei.

"Nope, sorry Rei! You'll have to keep up if you're gonna stay in shape for the relay next Thursday!"

Tossing his eyes, Rei pours on a sprite of velocity and surges forward, coming arm to arm with Nagisa.

"See? I didn't need to slow down."

"Hmph," Rei smiles.

Panting and out of breath, the two finally skid to a halt in a pavemented clearing surrounded by grass. The June sun beats down hot, but the trees shield them like silent sentinels.

They glance at each other for a moment before walking calmly towards the centerpiece of the memorial, the statue with Haru and Makoto valiantly planted as heroes on top.

"It hasn't changed at all," Nagisa states, a smile in his voice. He looks the statue up and down, staring into the lifeless eyes.

Rei laughs incredulously. "Well of course not! Why would anyone change it?"

"I don't know." He stuffs his hands into his team jacket, the red Iwatobi symbol catching a lift from the light.

"I guess I just thought that..." his face screws into a grimace. "Nah. Never mind, it was sorta stupid."

"What?" Rei persists, folding his arms after giving his glasses a decent shove.

"Uh..." he shrugs. "I guess I just thought that maybe they'd be here. Stupid and childish thought, I know. They're gone."

His head hangs limply and he shuffles his feet, thrusting a stone from its resting place with the front of his pink sneaker. Rei can't seem to think of anything to say.

"You're right, Nagisa. They are gone."

"Huh?" He leaps back with a start as you swivel out from behind the memorial. You make a teasing face at him, your two-year old tongue sticking out with your squinted eyes.

"Don't scare me like that!"

You laugh, the sound like a sweeping wind chime to the boys. Nagisa's pout quickly diminishes into an inquisitive expression as he steps forward.

"But what do you mean?"

Apparently he'd sensed the hint of secrecy in your voice from earlier.

"I mean, they're gone- but not for good. No one's gone for good."

Rei blinks oddly, tilting his head to the side as a question perches on his lips.

"_, are you alright...?"

You fold your arms and glare at him.

"I'm not crazy, if that's what you're thinking. I'm just saying that we'll see them again someday. I know we will. Haru told me."

This time, both Nagisa and Rei turn to each other with eyebrows raised.

"Uh..."

You huff irritably, shifting your eyes between them.

"Look!", you say, thrusting out your palm and shoving the object close to them. They peer down at the chain and pendant glittering inside.

"A locket?"

"Not just any locket. It was the one I gave to Haru before he left for the war, and he took care of it, like he promised!"

Nagisa nods slowly, suspicion playing checkers with trust on his face. "So, how did you get it?"

"I found it in the ocean."

"In the ocean?"

"Yep. It was floating on a piece of wood. It somehow found its way to me from the coast of China."

"It was just there?"

"Yes, Rei."

"Like, just THERE?"

"Didn't you just hear me?!"

The boys mutter quietly to themselves, shifting awkwardly under your harsh gaze.

"You sure it's not just a locket that looks like yours?"

"Positive." You flick the locket open and display the picture inside, little spots of water damage dotting it in a border on the edges.

Nagisa gasps and Rei shakes his head in disbelief, clawing for a closer look.

"No way...!"

"Way!", you nod enthusiastically, snatching the locket back from Rei.

His eyes pulsate wide under his frames. "This is...so, Haru, he's like- wait, and if he's- then-but that's n-"

"Shush!" Nagisa shoots a hand over his mouth, proceeding to stand tall in front of the memorial.

"Some things are inexplicable! We just have to believe in them."

You grin as he salutes to his statue friends.

"We'll see them again one day, _. You're right."

As the three of you waltz away, a whisper carries on the wind, faint but existent; more like a feeling or a memory than a word.

Somewhere on the shore, Haru takes your cheeks in his hands and kisses you tenderly.

"See you soon,"

he whispers.

**Author's Note: **Bonus content for this story, found only here on fanfic net! Please review :)


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